A festive forest in the inner city
Willowfield Parish Church in East Belfast will be celebrating the festive season creatively through its Christmas Tree Festival next week.
The festival will start with a Big Switch On – on Tuesday, 3rd December at 7.30 pm – in the company of the Ulster Youth Orchestra.
The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Reverend Richard Clarke, will be among our guests at the opening.
It will then be open from 10.00 am to 10.00 pm from Wednesday to Saturday.
The building will be filled with an indoor ‘forest’ of 60 trees, decorated in two different ways.
More than twenty artificial trees will focus on common Christmas traditions such as advent calendars, snowmen and Santa.
Forty natural trees will then show scenes and characters from the Christmas story, as well as other illustrated Bible verses and themes of Christmas carols.
Visitors can enjoy tea, coffee and traybakes and a range of crafts, jams and chutneys will also be on sale in our market.
All donations raised from the festival will go towards the redevelopment of the church hall, which is extensively used for youth, community and children’s work.
Originally built in the 1950s, the hall requires a major renovation to meet the future needs of the community.
This project is likely to cost £1 million and £250,000 has been raised to date.
With new facilities, the church hall would offer a sports space, good quality meeting rooms and kitchens where healthy eating can be promoted.
Willowfield sees the gospel as the catalyst for improvement in the community.
Rector Revd David McClay said: “The church’s task is to see lives transformed and when the church is doing what the church is supposed to do, then society gets changed as a result.
“We want to see the DNA of East Belfast transformed through the power of the gospel as we live it, declare it, preach it and demonstrate it.”